{"id":7484,"date":"2018-07-30T18:14:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T18:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=7484"},"modified":"2018-07-30T18:14:20","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T18:14:20","slug":"does-the-west-want-what-technology-wants-by-ricardo-hausmann-project-syndicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/30\/does-the-west-want-what-technology-wants-by-ricardo-hausmann-project-syndicate\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the West Want What Technology Wants? by Ricardo Hausmann – Project Syndicate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A jumbo aircraft literally requires\u00a0millions of parts<\/a>, and innovations in any component can have important implications for the plane\u2019s overall design and efficiency. For example, 3-D printing may\u00a0radically lower<\/a>\u00a0the number of parts required by turbine engines and thus significantly reduce their weight (and thus their fuel consumption). To exploit these possibilities, innovating companies need to be able to connect to manufacturers elsewhere in a secure manner.5<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

This is exactly the opposite of what a sunset clause in the North American Free Trade Agreement would accomplish. And it is why Airbus\u00a0recently warned<\/a>\u00a0that Brexit will have severe negative consequences for the United Kingdom\u2019s aerospace industry. Modularization requires the ability to tap talent anywhere in the world. In Silicon Valley, over half the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workers are foreign-born, and fewer than a fifth were born in California, a state that, with 40 million residents, would rank 36th among the world\u2019s countries. With US President Donald Trump\u2019s clampdown on immigration, the neighbor to the north put billboards in Silicon Valley that read \u201cH1B Visa Problems? Think Canada<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But implementing many technologies also requires ingredients that can be provided only through non-market mechanisms, and here governments play a critical role. Consider high-speed rail. Without government authorization and cooperation, no private company can build a rail line. Western Europe has more than 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of high-speed rail, and China has over 25,000. The United States claims to have 56 kilometers, in a short stretch that covers less than 8% of the distance between Boston and Washington, DC. The reason is obvious: this is a technology that, like the electric car, requires a social decision and a government that enables that choice.<\/p>\n

In short, technology requires a society that connects to the world, both through trade and openness to talent, in order to exploit the gains from modularization. It also requires a society that is able to develop a shared sense of purpose, one that is deep and powerful enough to direct the government to provide the public goods that new technologies require. The first requirement is facilitated by a society having a broader and more inclusive sense of who is a member. The second is facilitated by a deeper and more meaningful sense of membership.<\/p>\n

Developing these attitudes is not easy. It requires a\u00a0civic rather than an ethnic sense of nationhood<\/a>. This is why the stakes in today\u2019s policy debates in the West are not just about values. In a competitive world, societies pay dearly for being unable \u2013 or unwilling \u2013 to deliver what technology wants.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source: Does the West Want What Technology Wants? by Ricardo Hausmann – Project Syndicate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A jumbo aircraft literally requires\u00a0millions of parts, and innovations in any component can have important implications for the plane\u2019s overall design and efficiency. For example, 3-D printing may\u00a0radically lower\u00a0the number of parts required by turbine engines and thus significantly reduce their weight (and thus their fuel consumption). To exploit these possibilities, innovating companies need to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Does the West Want What Technology Wants? by Ricardo Hausmann – Project Syndicate”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-angol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}